what is a series in math

In mathematics, a series is the operation of adding infinitely many quantities, one after the other, to a given starting quantity. It can be defined as the sum of the terms in a sequence, where the sequence can be finite or infinite. A series is often represented in compact form using sigma notation, which uses the Greek letter sigma to indicate the summation involved. Series are used in various areas of mathematics and have applications in fields such as calculus, mathematical analysis, statistics, physics, computer science, and finance